Does Contracting Covid-19 While Working Count as an Occupational Disease?

According to Clause 9, Article 3 of the 2015 Law on Occupational Safety and Hygiene, the provision is as follows: Occupational disease is a disease that arises due to harmful working conditions impacting the worker.

And in Clause 1, Article 46 of this Law, an employee participating in occupational accident and occupational disease insurance is entitled to occupational disease policies when the following conditions are met:

- Suffers from an occupational disease listed in the List of Occupational Diseases promulgated by the Minister of Health as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 37 of this Law;

- Reduction in working capacity of 5% or more due to the disease specified in point a of this clause.

As referenced in Circular 15/2016/TT-BYT on the list of occupational diseases eligible for social insurance, it does not yet include Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) as one of the listed diseases. However, some diseases related to lung issues are mentioned.

Thus, up to the present time, there has been no document guiding that Covid-19 is an occupational disease. Therefore, in our opinion, in this case, employees working at a business who contract Covid-19 are not recognized as having an occupational disease.

Besides, for the most accurate guidance, your unit may send a written request to the social insurance agency for further assistance.

Sincerely!